The north-eastern edge of Northern Ireland provides a whiskey hotel, tourism time travel and coastal rejuvenation for Tom Shepherd

Where is it?

County Antrim sits on the north-eastern edge of Northern Ireland. I stay at the Harbourview Hotel in Carnlough, a small coastal village, about an hour north of Belfast. Its focal point is the limestone-walled harbour, especially since a stony staircase here featured in a critical, dramatic moment of fantasy TV show Game of Thrones.

What’s the accommodation like?

Known as the Londonderry Arms Hotel until 2024, the Harbourview Hotel was built by Anglo-Irish heiress Lady Frances Anne Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry, in 1848 and once owned by Sir Winston Churchill. Despite the refurb and renaming, the historical charm of the hotel has been kept in place – its 35 rooms filled with elegant furnishings and a deep sense of grandeur – while offering a fresh avenue of Irish culture: the new owners have made it the island’s first whiskey hotel.       

Irish whiskey, you see, as well as having a rich past, is on the up. Hotel co-owner Adrian McLaughlin explains how in 2012 there were only four distilleries – now there are more than 50. Consequently, you’ll find more grain than grape here, with the 300 bottles in its collection ranging from £21 to £11,000, while there are 11 whiskey flights on the menu. It also hosts events, talks and tastings.

What did you eat and drink?

At the Harbourview Hotel, we gather around a small dining table, each armed with a túath (a special tasting glass), where Adrian guides us through the notes, colours and stories of some local bottles. Even if a whiskey is rarely your first order at the bar, the pageantry of it all is a lot of fun. The menu is also built to complement the spirit, albeit subtly. The absolute highlight being the whiskey poached pear salad, which, with goat’s cheese and a honey dressing, has a wonderful sweet-sharp thing going on.

What is there to do?

There’s plenty more foodie adventure to be found nearby. We head to Willow and Lore farm, a 25 minute-drive inland. Here, Declan and Sabrina Scullion take visitors back a couple hundred years to try their hand at traditional Irish farming life. After a cosy welcome of herbal tea and shortbread in a quaint shepherd’s hut, we get to it. We thresh corn with a flail (a tool made by tying two large sticks together), pitchfork potatoes and sample poitín – a traditional spirit made from potatoes and grain, also known as Irish moonshine.

We also visit Whitehead, further south. This town became a big tourist spot in Victorian times, and a separate excursion train line was even built in 1907 to take on day-trippers from Belfast. The former station is now the Whitehead Railway Museum, which is home to retired vintage carriages. With the energy of a school trip, we hop on and off the collection of old steamers, including a 1950s dining carriage and the last Irish presidential saloon – first used in the 1970s.

Lasting memory

Our afternoon at Willow and Lore culminates with us holed up in an old farm cottage, taking it in turns to churn butter, which is later served with griddled potato cakes and kale. If the smell of the open fire and the groaning of the wind against the windows weren’t evocative enough, Declan starts to read farmstead poetry aloud.